Guillermo Del Toro Elegantly Criticizes The Oscars For Relegating Cinematography To Commercial Time

The Oscars aren’t having a great PR run over the past year, to put things mildly. After Kevin Hart’s emphatic exit, no one wants to emcee the upcoming festivities, which will (weirdly) go host-less, months after the Academy walked back their wildly unpopular idea to add a Most Popular movie category. Now, the Oscars are disappointing previous winners by deciding to relegate four awards to being presented during the commercial time of the upcoming Feb. 24 broadcast. Director Guillermo del Toro is displeased, and he’s not alone.

Per Deadline, these categories — Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Live Action Short, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling — are no longer receiving air time. Although they will be included for live streaming purposes, this move is turning into the Academy’s latest (backfiring) attempt to make the broadcast more watchable. Yes, it’s true that the Oscars runtime often feels far too long, but nope, this isn’t going over well. Del Toro, whose The Shape Of Water scored Best Picture and Best Director in 2018 (and inspired a dildo line), expressed strong (but respectful) displeasure with Cinematography getting the shaft.

“If I may: I would not presume to suggest what categories to cut during the Oscars show but – Cinematography and Editing are at the very heart of our craft,” he tweeted. “They are not inherited from a theatrical tradition or a literary tradition: they are cinema itself.”

(Del Toro has deleted this tweet and added a further explanation, which we’ll discuss at the bottom of this post.)